2008 Seattle Mariners

February 19, 2008

The Seattle Mariners were the leaders of the AL Wild Card on Aug. 27th, but they crumbled down the stretch to miss out on the playoffs. While the team had to deal with the departure of manager Mike Hargrove in the middle of the season, pitching was the main reason they team was unable to perform down the stretch. New manager John McLaren should have a much better chance of not letting that happen in 2008, as the Mariners have recently acquired Baltimore Orioles ace pitcher Erik Bedard. The team also went out and got Carlos Silva from free agency to improve the pitching staff. The team helped out the offense by signing OF Brad Wilkerson and utility player Miguel Cairo. The team did have to give up some quality prospects to bring in Bedard, such as CF Adam Jones. While Jones impact might not have been felt for a few more years, Bedard should make this team West contenders right away.

Pitching:

The team essentially has two aces now in Bedard and last year’s team ace Felix Hernandez. Which will be key if the team is able to make the playoffs. Behind the top two are solid starters Miguel Batista and Carlos Silva. Batista is the better of the two here as he won 16 games last year, but did have a high ERA (4.29). Veteran Jarrod Washburn will likely be the team’s fifth starter to start the season. Washburn started off really strong last year before going 2 9 after the break. The bullpen has 40 save man J.J. Putz to close down the end of the game. The rest of the bullpen is pretty solid as George Sherril and Sean Green both had solid years setting up Putz.

Offense:

While this wasn’t an explosive offense as you might see with some of the other teams in the AL, they seem to get the job done. They are still led by franchise player Ichiro Suzuki who is now playing CF. The team also has some power in the middle of the order with the bats of Raul Ibanez, Richie Sexson, and Adrian Beltre. Beltre is coming off his best season in the AL and could have an even bigger 2008. DH Jose Vidro is one of the best contact hitters in the game and should have another good year hitting second behind Ichiro. While the team doesn’t have a player who hit over 30 HRs last year, they have a very good mixture of players who hit for average and players who can send the ball out of the park. C Kenji Johjima had pretty solid numbers for a catcher, hitting .287 with 14HR. With Ichiro in the lineup this team will score runs, the only question is will they score enough to compete with all the high-powered offenses in the AL?

Defense:

This is a very solid defensive team that the Mariners will put out on the field. They have Gold Glove winners in CF Ichiro and 3B Beltre. SS Yuniesky Betancourt started off slow but committed only 4 errors the second half of the season, and looks like he could be a great defender for years to come. C Johjima did a pretty solid job of throwing out base runners sitting down almost 47% of those who tried.

Prediction:

While we really like the moves the team made over the off-season, we don’t think they will have the offense to keep up with the Angels in the West. The team will probably be in Wild Card contention the whole way through, but we again see them falling short. If one of the big dogs in the AL doesn’t pan out this is our 5th best team in the AL, so don’t be surprised if they sneak in the playoffs.

2008 Seattle Mariners Odds to Win World Series 20 – 1

For every team’s odds head over to BetUS and check them out. You can also go to BetUS to look at the odds for teams to win their division or league pennant. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section.

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2008 Seattle Mariners

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